Predictable comic book Japanese monster movie

Rating: 5/10 (31 July 2013)

Let me just get my one spoiler out of the way: Idris Elba's character dies, as his characters always seem to in whatever he's in. It's like he's the new Liam Neeson or Steve Buscemi, or Kenny on South Park. Anyway, I was a bit disappointed in the flick, even after going in with pretty low expectations. The main problem here is that the script is aimed so squarely at 10-year-old boys who want to see giant robots fighting giant monsters and imagine themselves as the top guns piloting those robots. If you're older than that, unless you're a fanboy of some kind, there's not much appealing about the movie. Sure, there are a lot of interesting CGI effects, mostly night scenes of intricately lit robots fighting monsters with glow-in-the-dark saliva. Everything else about the movie is just so juvenile-- the characters, the dialog, the action movie formula that anyone over 10 has probably seen dozens of times. I was hoping for much more from charismatic actors like Elba (The Wire, Luther, Prometheus) and Rinko Kukuchi (The Brothers Bloom, Babel), but they really just showed up for their blockbuster movie payday. Kukuchi, who was so intriguing in Babel and so funny in Brothers Bloom, is especially disappointing as a 32-year-old playing someone who acts like they're 17. Most of the action is filmed so close up that it's hard to see exactly what's happening, only that a giant robot is in a wrestling match with a giant sea monster. Charlie Day, who is the comic relief Giovanni Ribisi-type geeky scientist, was the highlight of the movie for me. But in the end I left the theater feeling like I'd sat too long, heard too much palaver, been punished with too many explosions and hackneyed martial arts fights, and seen absolutely nothing new.
I understand that Hollywood likes to make these big budget action movies with very little dialog because they do well overseas and that's a big new source of revenue. I really don't want to contribute any of my own revenue to wriggle uncomfortably in my theater seat anymore, though. Give me a script for grownups with some more originality and wit, and I might reconsider. Probably won't happen in my lifetime, but one can hope.